258 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
This type of mound was probably used almost entirely for burial 
purposes or erected as a monument to relatives or tribesmen whose re- 
mains were .elsewhere. Their structure is quite uniform. At the sur- 
face is a foot or two of clay or earth. Beneath this a more or less ir- 
regular floor or layer of rocks, usually flat. Sometimes this covers the 
part beneath completely, at others it is found in patches. Beneath this 
rock floor is found very compact clay down to the natural surface. 
Very rarely are any skeletal remains, charcoal, pottery, ornaments, or 
implements found. Though we have opened many by trenching in them 
we have never but once found anything, this exception being a small, 
rude bottle shaped urn three inches in height, and a finely wrought 
chert spearhead or knife, 1 3-4 inches long, found in the largest! mound 
of the Keller Group located on a terrace on the northeast, southwest of 
section 2, Township 98 north, Range 3 west, three miles below Lansing. 
It is well known that the Sioux and some other tribes disposed of 
their dead by placing the bodies in trees or on platforms. It was also 
a custom with some tribes at intervals to gather up the bones of such 
dead and deposit them in one common grave. (See a translation of a 
portion of the Relations of the Jesuits in Annual Report of Bureau of 
Ethnology for the years 1883-4.) 
It is possible that it was the custom to erect memorial mounds along 
the great river tio dead slain in battle and whose bodies were not re- 
covered, or to those whose bones rested far in the interior. 
If bodies or bones were placed in these mounds when made, then the 
ones examined by us must be of great age. Time enough must have 
elapsed since their 'erection to permit the complete decay of all remains 
placed in them. 
In a few of the round mounds, at the bottom and just above the nat- 
ural surface is found a layer, several inches in thickness, of clay burned 
red, and resembling broken brick made without sand, or like the 
burned clay made and used by some railroads for ballast. 
Such a mound is located on the bluff top just north of the mouth of 
Yellow River, and another is on the top of a point, of bluff directly 
above and north of the few small stores and residences of Waukon 
Junction. 
The second type of earthwork, and the form most abundant next after 
the round mound, is the long embankment. This type has an average 
width of 18 to 20 feet, a height of 1 to 4 feet, and may be any length 
up to over 400 feet. 
